Small things | Bigger life

Money Saving Tip: Target REDcard & Cartwheel App

With two weeks of 2017 under our belts, how is everyone doing? How are the resolutions and goals going?

I will say the 2017 spark and glow is still glittering in my life despite taking down our Christmas decorations (I really had to force myself). I don’t know if I have ever been so jazzed about my goals. How many of you created your own Goal Board?

I’ve been working to be better focused, specific, and effective with my goals and how I accomplish them. I will admit there are a lot of goals I want to check off this year alone. Since there is so much, they have all been swirling in my head. I wanted to focus them better in my mind so I decided to think of my goals in category form and came up with the idea of working on my BFF (Body + Faith + Finances). When you look at my goals almost all of them add up to these three pillars in many ways. And then they will all spill over to this blog. 🙂

Do your goals add up to a fun acronym?! Now let’s get to The Extra Sprinkles!

It’s hard to express how ecstatic I am to get back into my groove of paying off debt with the Dave Ramsey system. I’ve now started listening to his podcast to and from work and have been enjoying watching Rachel Cruze vlogs to keep me inspired, motivated, and educated.

I’ve been anxiously waiting to write about this money saving tip. I am sure you have been asked, “Are you interested in the Target Redcard?” many times when you are checking out at Target. I was asked this probably hundreds of times before I finally decided to take the plunge. I was always either in a hurry and thought it would take a long time to sign up or had this feeling that there had to be some sort of catch.

But there isn’t. And it didn’t take that long to get signed up.

I do believe there is a debit card and credit card version. I decided on the debit card version (no way in heck do I need another credit card). I just wanted a simple debit card of what will come out of my bank account will be what I spent.

So here is what it is: Target REDcard

You sign up and then you are sent a Target REDcard which acts literally as a debit card. That’s it.

I just use it when I shop at Target.

Every time I use it, I save 5% of my total. And if you love and shop at Target as much as I do, it WILL add up!

At the bottom of your receipt, it will show you how much you saved that day with your card and also how much you have saved for the year too. Those two totals are ONLY from your REDcard. Then you will see a “Total Savings This Trip” and that will include any sales Target had, Cartwheel savings, coupons, etc.

As a heads up, the Target REDcard does take a couple days to debit from your bank account. It doesn’t show up right away.

This is a free app that you can download on your smartphone. It’s powered by Target and essentially it’s more ways to save! It includes categories such as food, apparel, beauty, cleaning supplies, etc., and then is specified even better with subcategories such as bakery & bread, baking supplies, beverages, etc. You can scroll through the offers and tap on the plus sign to add it to your list. It’s like electronic coupons! When you check out, you pull up the customized bar code on your app or through your “Wallet” (if you are iPhone users like me!). Then the cashier will scan it and you will see your total lower. 🙂

When I first started to regularly use the app, I was surprised how many groceries and items I bought regularly were on there. I was saving even more on stuff I was already planning on buying! It might be 5-25% here and there, but it also adds up!

That’s almost $150 I saved in a year just from using the REDcard debit card and the Cartwheel app! And that doesn’t include the savings I had from sales Target had and coupons!

I also want to mention that I wasn’t perfect. There were a few Target trips I didn’t have my REDcard with me and others I didn’t take the time to utilize Cartwheel. So I could have saved even more! I can’t recommend taking the time to use these tools to save yourself some money!

*This is not a paid advertisement. This is based on my personal experiences using these services.